Nobles' Palace
A Nobles' Palace is a national project building that is buildable to all Asian factions, including Iran, and is based onn two different buildings: *For Asian factions, it is based off the old Yuanmingyuan complex - it uses Korean-style architecture but has a white stone exterior. *For India and Iran, the design of the Nobles' Palace is based off the Farahabad of Mazendaran. It is an important building because it allows the researching of two fundamental technologies in the Colonial Era: *Foreign concessions - grants a higher tax revenue rate, but inflicts a food penalty per each tavern constructed. *Divine Mandate - higher attrition rate against enemies, but inflicts a wealth penalty per oil well constructed. Although the construction of this building is restricted to Turkey, India, Malaya and the Bedouin, they may capture a city containing a Nobles' Palace without causing it to be razed. Any other faction that conquers a Nobles' Palace immediately causes it to fall apart. You might wonder why, given the penalties of either technology, would anyone every choose to research these techs. The answer is simple: wealth and attrition are high crucial to the maintenance of your empire. Furthermore, many of the problems associated with these technologies do not necessarily manifest themselves until later in the game. For a faction such as Iran, these technologies are essential to the maintenance of its armies, as each tech allows access to another set of powerful UUs trainable from the Nobles' Palace. Trainable units flashcard Historical notes When the first Europeans appeared in Asia, they did cause quite a bit of an impression. Although initially kept out and away from locals by xenophobic mandarins, Western influence could and did in fact begin to influence the culture of the natives, and in some cases the native governments involved chose to maintain ties with a variety of European powers. For instance, Mysore's ruler Tipu Sultan established relations with France in the late 18th century, and even allowed the construction of a church. In north Asia, however, the Chinese and Japanese, wary and suspicious of the new foreigners, forbade them to trade directly and forced the western powers to trade from specially prepared outposts, such as Macao for the Portuguese, and Nagasaki for the Dutch in an effort to stem what they saw as counter-cultural influences which could potentially undermine political control - a trait which, while latent in some Asian nations, is often fully blown in other nations — the present-day People's Republic of China attempts to regulate this spread of foreign ideas, while its northeastern neighbour, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, practises de facto cultural isolation. By the 19th century, however, Asia was at a crossroads. Western nations, thanks to new developments in technology, were now capable of projecting power throughout the world. In the olden days of gunpowder and wooden tall ships, it was impossible to gain any more than a few trading ports scattered throughout the South China Sea and the Indian subcontinent. Now, however, armed with devastating weapons and the means of projecting them in new areas in a matter of weeks instead of months, the European powers began to make their influence more felt - and uncomfortably, to many. Thus, the monarchs of these Asian nations now were faced with a dilemma - either to cling to the old ways of doing things and run the risk of being colonised by a rival (as did happen to Korea and Konbaung Burma), or to cast all caution to the wind and adopt Western practices, even if they may result in changes to the old pecking order (such as China and Japan). The Nobles' Palace reflects these new changes and ways in thinking, and is thus meant to simulate the challenges Asian cultures had to face when facing the all-new Western powers. Category:National projects